Damaged and not properly packed

The woods bindings were not packed in a cardboard pipe which caused damage on top of 4 of the woods during transport. They were flaked and broken.If I were not an old customer of you, I would change my provider definitely.

Response from StewMac

We are very sorry to hear these were damaged when they arrived. I sent you an email regarding getting these replaced. We are happy to get you what you need. - Spencer, Customer Support

Serious Color Matching Issues.

By
from Athens

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

I have purchased Cocobolo, Curly Maple, and Koa bindings from Stew Mac before, and received useable products. The order of Cocobolo bindings I just received, however, are so inconsistent in color and grain that I can't imagine using them on an instrument of respectable quality. I only ordered six pieces, enough for one guitar. Three pieces (towards the right) are a somewhat "normal" cocobolo color, albeit a bit bland, and the other three range from bright orange to a mustard yellow color. They would look horribly out of place together on the same guitar, and the lighter pieces would look out of place just about anywhere. I know that differences in color are to be expected in woods such as cocobolo, but I would expect some effort to be put into at least color matching small orders such as this.(The binding on the far right in the photo is cocobolo binding I ordered from Stew Mac at an earlier date.)

Response from StewMac

We are sorry to hear you are not happy with the cocobolo binding we have provided. I will be contacting you shortly regarding this and we will do our absolute best to find you a matching set. - Spencer, Customer Support

Curly maple binding

I've been buying this binding from Stewmac for several years because of the excellent quality. It would be nice though if they were available in thinner thicknesses like the plastic bindings are. .040 would be perfect in my opinion.

Rosewood Binding

I ordered one piece of Rosewood and the wood was very nice. The sizes were just as advertised. The problem I had was with packing. The box arrived right away, as all my StewMac orders have, but it was in sad shape and when I removed the wood from inside it was in four pieces. Luckily I was using it as inlay on a native American flute project and not a guitar body so I was able to make it work with just one unwanted joint that I was able to hide with decoration. These suckers are delicate and need a hard tube as protection from the post office. When you pay 2 1/2 times the cost of the material for shipping, you'd hope it shows up whole.

Response from StewMac

Thank you for your feedback. We are always looking for ways to improve upon our ordering process. From the moment you place the order to when it is delivered to your door, we want it to be an excellent experience. Please let us know if there is something we can do to accommodate you for this issue. We would be happy to refund or replace this piece of binding.

800-848-2273 - or use the "Contact Us" link on our website at any time.

Very good and consistent,

Overall Product is consistent, though not always well matched... wood isn't always cut in the same direction and pairs aren't always looking alike... but, it's a very good consistent binding in terms of quality, dimensions and beauty

Ebony with maple stripes

These binding strips were very easy to work with. They bent well without heating or steaming. The white lines are very subtle, but attractive. A very nice touch that can show off your craftsmanship if you can line them up properly (neck binding with body). They were also very easy to scrape to size where necessary. Great product